Dexter's Director of Bands Ken Moore named Guest Conductor at Bowling Green State University

From Dexter Community Schools:

In just a few short weeks, several hundred talented young musicians from Ohio and southeast Michigan will arrive in Bowling Green, Ohio for a multi-day band event at Bowling Green State University. The annual BGSU High School Honors Band returns after a brief hiatus, and one of the three bands will be conducted by Dexter’s own Director of Bands Dr. Kenneth Moore. The event will be all the more special, as DHS junior Yuma Tsubouchi (French horn) has been accepted into the honors band and will join Dr. Moore on stage.

The weekend event will feature three student bands composed of promising student musicians nominated by their band directors and divided by ability level through onsite auditions. They will work closely with BGSU faculty, students and guest clinicians throughout the entire event. Moore is one of three conductors, having been asked to participate by colleague and friend Dr. Kenneth Thompson, a professor in the College of Musical Arts at BGSU. Thompson and Moore will be joined on stage by Thomas Keck, Director of Bands and Chair of the Department of Music at Utah Valley University.

Moore’s connection with BGSU began five years ago, when the College of Musical Arts started an online Master of Music Education program. Dr. Thompson, who has guest conducted and held clinics at DHS several times over the past decade, recruited Moore as an adjunct instructor for this new program. With this honors band program, Moore has the opportunity to participate in one of the college’s primary outreach programs, which brings high school students on campus to explore the possibility of a music major.

Dr. Moore has taught at Dexter Schools for twenty-four years and currently serves as the Music Department Chair and Director of Bands at DHS. He conducts the Symphonic, Concert, and Varsity Bands, the Dreadnaught Marching Band, the DHS Big Band, and fifth grade beginning woodwinds.

“The program has grown a lot since I started,” Moore says, “along with the town and the District. When I first came, we had 150 students in the marching band, which grew to 190 before the pandemic.” He shares that it has been exciting to see growth in all Dexter’s music programs – orchestra, choir, and band – and, now that things are returning to normal after the pandemic, it is expected more and more students will join a school music program. “We are blessed with great music staff here at DCS,” Moore says, “and we’ve always enjoyed great support from the community, parents and administration.”

Moore holds a DMA from Boston University, and an MA and BME from Eastern Michigan University. Prior to his appointment in Dexter in 1998, Dr. Moore was the director of bands in Dundee, Michigan and Grant Park, Illinois. His groups have consistently received first-division ratings at district and state festivals and have performed at numerous venues throughout the country. Moore has also held several offices in the Michigan School Band and Orchestra Association and is an active festival adjudicator for that organization. His research has been published in the Journal of Historical Research in Music Education, the Journal of Band Research, and the Michigan Music Educators Journal. Honors include MSBOA District 12 Teacher of the Year (twice), the American School Band Directors Association Award of Excellence, the Eastern Michigan University Bands’ Honored Alumni Award, Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers, and the Dexter Most Influential Teacher Award (seven times). He and his wife Robin reside in Livonia, Michigan.